Trinity Mirror is continuing to enjoy benefits from its “Stabilise Revitalise Grow” strategy, according to its chief executive, Sly Bailey.

Group revenues increased by 1.2 per cent to £579.3m and operating profits increased by 7.9 per cent to £128.3m for the first half of the year.

Its interim results, announced today, also show that revenues for the regionals division increased by 2.6 per cent to £277.3m and operating profit grew 6.6 per cent to £78.8m.

This includes a £3.3m increase for the regional newspaper titles excluding Metros, a £500,00 increase in Metros and profits of £900,000 for digital media activities compared to a loss of £200,000 last year.

Sly Bailey said the group’s improved performance had been achieved despite a difficult advertising market and said it reflected the continued benefits of the group’s “Stabilise Revitalise Grow” strategy.

She said: “In particular, the group operating margin improvement reflects the effectiveness of the strategy in driving continuous improvement across our portfolio of products and publishing processes.”

She said that having stabilised the core business the group remained fully focused on growth, and that although still in the early stages “real progress” had been made in the last six month.

Focusing on the regionals division, which publishes titles such as the Birmingham Evening Mail, the Liverpool Echo and the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, she said managing director Georgina Harvey had undertaken a root and branch review of the business and has formulated clear action plans to further improve performance.

She said: “These plans have been framed into three clear strategic priorities: to drive top and bottom line performance to further improve margins, to drive efficiencies in the operating model by fully capturing the benefits of scale and to accelerate growth through a stronger focus on growth and innovation.”

Advertising revenues for the regionals increased 1.5 per cent to £214.1m, with growth of 0.4 per cent to £204.1m excluding Metros.

The division achieved growth in advertising revenues of 4.0 per cent for January to April with a fall in advertising revenues of 3.3 per cent for May and June.

Growth of 3.1 per cent for display, 17.9 per cent for property and 3.4 per cent for other classified categories has been partially offset by declines of 6.7 per cent for recruitment and 2.7 per cent for motors.

With the exception of the regional newspaper titles in the South and the Midlands where advertising revenues fell by 1.6 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, and the North West, where revenues were flat, all regions achieved year on year advertising revenue growth.

Regional newspapers circulation revenue increased by 5.1 per cent to £41.6m, with the continued benefit of the ‘little and often’ cover price policy.

Circulation volumes for the regionals declined by 0.9 per cent for daily morning titles, 4.6 per cent for daily evening titles, 5.5 per cent for Sunday titles and 3.6 per cent for the weekly titles.

Got something we should be writing about? Get in touch by e-mailing [email protected]

Back to the Analysis index